


A few good men

by PrincessPenelopeNerfHerder



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-12 18:05:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11167200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessPenelopeNerfHerder/pseuds/PrincessPenelopeNerfHerder
Summary: James escapes with Elizabeth from the Dutchman. Post AWE AU. Little bit of angst.





	A few good men

**Author's Note:**

  * For [snowbryneich](https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowbryneich/gifts).



> Long over due prompt request and my first foray into anything remotely Norribeth. Hope you enjoy.

“James, come with me.” She said to him before escaping the Dutchman. Her voice was pleading, luring him…as if she wasn’t going to marry Turner as soon as this was all over. But all he’d ever wanted was to be by her side, so how could he refuse her? 

Admiral Norrington followed Elizabeth that night and on they went to Shipwreck Cove. He’d never felt so out of place in his entire life as suspicious eyes fixed upon his every movement, but Elizabeth ensured his safety. Even under Jack Sparrow’s brutal and questioning gaze, she stood strong in her defense of him. Though, he sensed something more to the look the pirate had given her, a greater battle yet to be fought or one the pirate had already lost. A look James recognized all too well. Regardless, and much to Norrington’s surprise, Jack Sparrow made Elizabeth King of the Brethren Court and the lot of them were to make a final stand against the Company, no matter how many times Norrington voiced his reservations against such foolishness.

The smoke from the battle cleared. Will Turner left aboard the Dutchman to tend to those lost at sea, Jack Sparrow sailed off on the Pearl bickering with Barbossa into the sunset, and the Pirate King, Elizabeth Swann, returned to Shipwreck Cove, making it her primary residence as she continued lording over the brethren court. Former Admiral James Norrington watched it all with unbelieving eyes. He never imagined giving up everything he had to stand against injustice with a small army of pirates. Nevertheless, the day was won and he was free to do whatever he wished. If only he knew exactly what that was. 

Elizabeth had offered him a place on her crew, first mate in fact. She had relinquished the Empress to Tai Huang and commissioned a ship of her own. The Tabula Rasa it was christened, a formidable brigantine with a dark gray hull and sails to match. “A fresh start for the both of us,” she said with a comforting hand upon his arm.  A charitable deed, nothing more, he knew that, but, again, how could he refuse her? His love for her never waned, not one moment. He imagined he’d die still loving her, however one sided it seemed to be. So he sailed by her side. He’d become her greatest advisor and confidant as they took on trade ships and enemy vessels…but was always kept an arm’s length away. 

Elizabeth hid her true self from just about everyone, never letting any one person get too close. It had very little to do with trust and everything to do with maintaining her invulnerable facade. Weakness was the last thing she wished to show, there was no room for it aboard a pirate ship, especially as a _woman_ aboard a pirate ship. But he knew somewhere hidden beneath the fierce warrior Captain he now served, was a broken hearted and jaded woman who often cried herself to sleep at night. A loneliness lived in her and an unimaginable pain that she buried deep within her. James preferred to think of it as the kindling that kept her burning so brightly in the face of her adversaries rather than the anchor weighing her down to the depths of the sea, but all the same he wished she would allow him to comfort her, to be there for her in place of her husband who was cursed to man the Dutchman for the next decade. 

Only one person ever managed to crack her stony exterior. He’d come to Shipwreck Cove in a dinghy begging for her help to get back his precious Pearl. She owed him a debt, he’d come to find, and she would do anything in her power to absolve that debt…whatever the cost. 

James began to suspect the undead Turner was not the reason she cried herself to sleep and that instead it was Jack Sparrow who plagued her thoughts as it seemed he was the only one capable of rattling her cage enough to affect any kind of outward emotional response. Perhaps it was guilt, perhaps it was something else James preferred not to acknowledge, but whatever it was had Elizabeth bending to Sparrow’s will like a common doxy. 

It filled James with great loathing or perhaps jealousy toward the pirate, probably both. There was an obvious fire between the two Captains, a war they waged to see who could out last the other, always trying to prove something. They’d scream at each other in one moment, steal off to her cabin the next, it was a ridiculous routine and James wished, more than anything, that it could be his. There were times he thought he ought to just take her, have her over a barrel and be done with it, ignore any feelings of love he might have. It must have been what she wanted, for Sparrow hadn’t treated her with much more care than that and he certainly didn’t think the pirate was capable of loving her. Though, there were times he wasn’t so sure that was true either. 

They’d been sailing for months like this. James wondered if this was his punishment for betraying them, having to bear witness to Elizabeth in the arms of that filthy pirate. It pained him, that she would go so far to forsake her vows with Jack Sparrow of all people…but then again…Elizabeth was a pirate herself…

James didn’t think he had what it took to be a pirate. He’d been brought up to value duty and honor and love, but where did that ever get him? The frustration this caused James was insurmountable, and he found it increasingly difficult to maintain his displeasure with his captain’s choice of bedmate. 

And so he found himself at her door late one night, intending to speak his mind on the matter. He’d overheard Sparrow scream some not so pleasant words in her direction before stalking off to the hold and could no longer stay silent. Admittedly, James had imbibed far too much rum, but it was currently the only thing allowing him the courage to cross her threshold…in every sense of the word. A small bit of rage bubbling in his gut, he didn’t even bother with knocking, but instead burst in as if there was some great emergency on deck. She raised her head to him from her desk with reddened eyes and tear stained cheeks, and James lost all resolve in an instant. His rage had turned to pity and he found he couldn’t possibly berate her. She was doing enough of that on her own.

“Is something the matter?” she asked as she rubbed her eyes, feigning it was sleep that caused the glassiness of her eyes.

“I should ask the same of you, though I believe I already know the cause,” he said coming to lean against the side of her desk with arms crossed. 

“Passing judgement will get you nowhere,” she muttered, lifting a bottle of rum to her lips.

“I reserve the right to pass judgement when your decision making has become questionable…at best,” he chided, gently pulling the bottle from her grip and setting upon the desk.

She snorted derisively, but still managed a smile. “He’s not the blackguard you think he is.”

“Then why are you crying?” He asked of her. 

“It’s difficult to explain,” she choked out as she rose from her desk and turned to the bookshelf.

“Is it? I’d never dare to speak to you the way he did.” James continued to stare daggers of disapproval at her back. 

“You were listening?” she accused him, turning abruptly

“Difficult not to.” He shrugged.

Elizabeth dropped her gaze to the floor, focusing intently on the planking beneath her feet. “I deserved it,” she said softly. 

“You don’t really believe that, do you? He’s been taking advantage of your guilty conscience for months…and you let him. I don’t even…”

“It’s not…that’s not…” she interjected

“Please, Elizabeth, you have to stop torturing yourself. You don’t owe him anything.” He walked over to her lifting her chin with a hooked finger.

“I owe him everything!” she screamed at him, pulling her face away. “I don’t expect you to understand,” she continued softly, pacing the cabin.

“Help me to understand, please, otherwise I’m liable to march down to the hold and put a sword in his gut like I should have done all those years ago.”

Elizabeth stopped in her tracks. “Don’t say that.”

“Why not?”

“Because in spite of everything, he’s still a good man.”

“Sparrow?” James snorted disbelievingly.

“Yes, you don’t know all that he’s given up for me.” Wrapping her arms around herself, she whispered softly as if she was sharing a safely guarded secret, “He loves me.”

“And do you love him?” he asked, certain he didn’t want to know the answer.

“I can’t. Not the way he wants me to. Not fully,” she answered almost shamefully.

“Because of Will?” He asked hesitantly. She nodded in response. “Surely Jack can understand that?”

“Could you?” she asked, knowing full well he still held a candle for her.

“I would take whatever was offered and be grateful to have even the smallest fraction of you, knowing that I wasn’t deserving even of that,” he spoke poetically.

Elizabeth laughed at his proclamation. “You’re too good for me, James. You deserve far more than a fraction.”

“Too good? You love to forget that I betrayed you all on Isla Cruces,” he barked in frustration.

“Yes, your one dastardly deed. I’m afraid it’s not enough to change the kind of man you are. You’ll always be a god man,” she dismissed him with the wave of her hand.

“Perhaps I don’t want to be a good man anymore,” James walked toward her, his courage building up to a breaking point.

“I don’t need you to change, James. I like you just as you are.” She brought a gentle hand to his cheek and it was enough to send him over the edge. James captured her lips between his with unexpected aggression. She pulled away reluctantly.

“James. You don’t want this,” she exhaled, still surprised by his actions.

“What is it you are always saying about people making decisions for you?” 

“That I’d prefer to make my own mistakes.”

“Precisely. Let me decide what it is that I want. Or perhaps you’d like me to grab Sparrow’s compass and show you?” 

“That won’t be necessary,” she whispered still holding his gaze with her own.

“Good, because I’m not finished, not by any measure,” he declared brusquely, capturing her lips again.

Elizabeth always imagined he would have been a careful lover, but there was fire in the way he kissed her now, the way his hands found their way into her hair and around her waist. He held her tightly to him as he deepened the kiss and her hands fell to rest upon his shoulders. She allowed him this moment, however conflicted her mind and her heart were, she realized she owed James a piece of herself as well. 

James pulled back at the sound of knocking upon her door. 

“Lizzie.” Jack’s voice rang hollow from the other side.

“I expect he’s here to apologize.” James muttered simply as he disentangled himself from her.

“Yes,” was her only reply.

“I’ll leave you to it, then.” James walked toward the door with a bit more swagger than he had before, but she caught his hand before he reached for the doorknob.

“You don’t have to leave,” she offered sympathetically.

“I think I do.” He gave her a genuine smile and kiss on the cheek before leaving the cabin and allowing Jack Sparrow inside.

James disembarked from the Tabula Rasa when they reached the next port and found employ on a merchant ship. The moment he kissed her, he realized a fraction of her could never be enough. He would always want all of her. In that moment he had come to understand Jack Sparrow in a way he never imagined possible, and in an act of self preservation he left. 

It didn’t take long for Elizabeth to realize why James Norrington left, and why Jack would leave eventually as well. It seemed no heart was safe in her care.  

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and reviews would be greatly appreciated.


End file.
